‘He’s Absolutely Terrible’: C.C. Sabathia Blasts Angel Hernandez

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Umpire Angel Hernandez preparing to work behind home plate in Game 4 between the Yankees and Red Sox on Tuesday. Three of Hernandez’s calls were overturned on review Monday night, when he worked at first base.CreditCreditBen Solomon for The New York Times

In a somber clubhouse Tuesday night, C.C. Sabathia had just finished discussing the disappointment of a premature end to the season, how he hoped his teammates would remember him if it had been his last game as a Yankee, and the difference between his team and the Boston Red Sox.

“The ball just bounced their way,” Sabathia said.

But as reporters and videographers began to disperse from around his locker, Sabathia had something else to get off his chest.

“I need to say this,” he told a handful of reporters who had stuck around. “I don’t think Angel Hernandez should be umping playoff games. He’s absolutely terrible. He was terrible behind the plate today. He was terrible at first base. It’s amazing how he’s getting a job umpiring in these playoff games.”

It was the type of public broadside againstan umpire that is exceedingly rare and certain to draw a hefty fine from Major League Baseball. But it was not entirely surprising considering that Hernandez, a veteran, had been at the center of one of the defining moments of Boston’s American League division series victory over the Yankees.

Hernandez had three calls overturned by replay while officiating at first base in Game 3 on Monday night, and when he took his place behind the plate for Game 4, he arrived with a reputation for having an erratic strike zone. His inconsistency has come under greater scrutiny in recent years with the advent of technology that tracks exactly where a pitch crosses home plate.

Sabathia, who had to be restrained earlier this season from confronting Hernandez during a game in Anaheim, Calif., approached him after the first inning Tuesday and spoke to the umpire while covering his mouth with his glove. Sabathia declined to discuss their conversation.

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C.C. Sabathia (52) wasn’t pleased after the game with Hernandez’s calls behind the plate.CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

Asked if Hernandez’s strike zone was inconsistent on Tuesday, Sabathia said: “Always. He’s bad. I don’t understand why he’s doing these games.” He wondered aloud why umpires could not be sidelined during a playoff series the same way an underperforming player might be benched.

It might have seemed as though Sabathia, who was knocked out of the Yankees’ 4-3 loss after three innings, would have sympathetic ears in the visitor’s clubhouse — Boston’s Andrew Benintendi protested a called third strike that left three Red Sox runners stranded in the eighth.

But Boston starter Rick Porcello had a different view.

“Throw the ball over the plate, C.C.,” Porcello said. “I thought Angel Hernandez called a good game. You’ve got to put the ball over the white part of the plate, and then you get strikes called.”

Hernandez, 57, who emigrated from Cuba as a child, has been a major league umpire since 1991. He worked the All-Star Game and a division series last season, and a league championship series in 2016. He worked the World Series in 2002 and 2005. Postseason umpire assignments are handled by M.L.B.

As long ago as 2010, a players’ poll by ESPN rated Hernandez as the third worst umpire in baseball.

Hernandez has also garnered attention because of a lawsuit he filed last year against M.L.B. that asserted he had been passed over for promotions — to crew chief or for postseason assignments — because of his ethnicity. The suit, which is pending, was moved last week to New York from a United States District Court in southern Ohio.

After Game 3, Pedro Martinez, the TBS television analyst and former Red Sox pitcher, was unsparing in his criticism of Hernandez.

“Angel was horrible,” Martinez said. “Don’t get me going on Angel now. Major League Baseball needs to do something about Angel. It doesn’t matter how many times he sues Major League Baseball. He’s as bad as there is.”

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Andrew Benintendi argued with Hernandez after being called out in the eighth inning.CreditBen Solomon for The New York Times

Sabathia’s comments echoed criticism from Red Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler, who had a memorable conflict with Hernandez last season when he was kicked out of a game for arguing balls and strikes and later incurred a $10,000 fine for his comments.

“I’m surprised at how bad an umpire he is,” Kinsler, who was playing for the Tigers at the time, told The Detroit News. “I don’t know how, for as many years as he’s been in the league, that he can be that bad. He needs to re-evaluate his career choice, he really does. Bottom line.”

While it is common for basketball and football coaches to try to influence officiating, either through comments in the news media or haranguing from the sideline, replay has stripped baseball of many ways that managers might sway umpires.

But one exception appears to be balls and strikes, which cannot be reviewed.

“I’m joking here — don’t take it seriously — but tonight I have the upper hand because I’m bilingual and the umpire behind the plate is, too,” Red Sox Manager Alex Cora said before Tuesday’s game. “So I can use both languages tonight.”

Cora said that, despite persistent complaining from both dugouts, he felt umpires generally do a very good job. Coaches monitoring replays communicate with the coaches in the dugout to let them know if a pitch looked like a ball or strike upon review.

“There was a game the other day, I think I was screaming and I screamed like six or seven times, and then somebody said, ‘Hey, that was a strike by the way,’” Cora said before Tuesday’s game. “You can’t tell from where we’re at. You try to put pressure, but at the end, I don’t think that changes. They’re going to call the game the way they see it.”

Yankees Manager Aaron Boone, like Cora, said before the game that he had no concerns about Hernandez.

“It’s not something that’s a big issue in our clubhouse,” Boone said — neglecting at least one corner of it.

James Wagner contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: After a Bad Game, an Umpire Draws Renewed Scrutiny From Many Sides. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe